The Messiah
by northernlion196
Summary: Ribbons Almark died a villain, what if he woke up in a very different universe and decided to live as a hero? 00xSeed Crossover.
1. The Arrival

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed or Gundam 00! They belong to their respective owners.**

**This story is heavily inspired by Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 which somehow managed to get everyone to work together. Though I wish the other, better Gundam games would get translated...not that they're unplayable without japanese knowledge!**

**I suppose a bit of an OOC warning since I am taking the big bad of 00 and making him good/neutral. Also there will obviously be some slight AU shenanigans. This is also my first thought out fanfic so I'm going to admit I'm not the greatest at writing. Plus I timed the release of this pretty badly since everyone else is doing "character x gets thrown into seed" so I feel that their stories will make mine be inadequate, but oh well.**

It was over. The final battle had ended, the Gundam Meisters had won in their struggle against the ALAWS and the Innovades. Peace had been achieved in the immediate future.

In the wreckage of a mobile suit that was once the O Gundam, a dieing spirit was reflecting upon this revelation. The mastermind behind the ALAWS and the man who attempted to become a god, Ribbons Almark, was going to die. The embrace of death was going to take him, he who was once untouchable if not immortal. Yet he was not at all disturbed. Ribbons didn't cry out in defiance, nor did he struggle onto life, the innovade simply allowed what happened to continue to happen with no interference. 'It's strange, almost liberating', the green haired innovade thought. 'Setsuna...or Soran as you once were...you have bested me. A true innovator will lead humanity to its future.' He cough up blood as his last mortal shell was failing him. 'Perhaps what I have done may have been a mistake seeing I am the loser here. You and your fellow gundam pilots have shown that human spirit and tenacity can overcome any obstacle, even my once perfect plans.' Ribbons closed his eyes, preparing for his final breath. 'I wonder if I could have done it that way...instead of becoming a bloodied tyrant...could I have been a true savior of humanity?'

At the final thought, something most peculiar occurred. A strange light appeared in front of the innovade, as if it was answering the man's final question. 'What is this?' Ribbons thought, cracking open his eyes, 'And why does it seem to be affecting my quantum brainwaves?' If it could talk or communicate at all, the strange specter of light did not reveal. However it steadily grew brighter and brighter until Ribbons could not help but to shut his eyes from the glare.

Then the falling sensation kicked in for Ribbons. He felt like he was tumbling down an endless black chasm with no indications of where he was or where he was even going. 'Is this some sort of afterlife?' Ribbons mused, 'I didn't even know there would be one for my kin.' After he lost count of the minutes, or was it hours, there suddenly was a new feature of this bizarre place. A plain white light, faint at first, but he was clearly getting closer to it. Eventually without any indication, he plunged through the light and promptly landed on what felt like physical ground.

'It's a good thing the law of physics didn't seem to apply to that dreadful place,' the green haired man grumbled as he got his bearings, 'would've hit terminal velocity and become an innovade pancake.' Getting up, there were several things he noticed. First, he seemed to be on some sort park area judging from the grass he was standing on and some plain walkways that snaked their way around, populated with some benches and not to mention the gazebo off in the distance.

Second, despite it being nighttime, the night and stars looked..."projected" or synthetic. 'Some sort of artificial sky?' Ribbons thought, 'But who would be insane enough to have this huge of a structure with a fake sky?' The structure he was in was indeed large, seemed to be large enough to have a city along with periphery settlements. 'Either we're under ground, under water, or in space...' The last thought haunted Ribbons a bit as the original purpose of Celestial Being was to ready humanity for the dialogs and thus humanity was meant to go into space. However he twisted the entire organization for his own goals which resulted in the terrible wars and his own demise. 'Still, an artificial colony? Whoever built this must have had some significant technology. Just as good if not better than humans of my own place.'

Finally the last thing he noticed was that he was alive and healed of his injuries, but he was also stark naked. Not that being naked really disturbed him mentally, but it was a little chilly despite what he assumed was artificial air. 'I better find some clothes lest I want to catch a cold, if I can get even sick, or attract unwanted attention to myself.'

Right before he was going to set off, the sound of...flapping could be heard along with the tapping of running shoes. "Birdy come back!" a young man's voice sounded off. "BIRDY!" a mechnaical voice replied back. Ribbons saw the most interesting sight of a green robot in the shape of a bird flying around the park, followed by a brown haired human teenager wearing what looked like jogging clothes. 'Well I guess I must be in a human habitat then,' mused Ribbons, 'Although...purple eyes? That isn't natural at all.' He was interrupted when the green robot decided to fly right in front of the innovade, flapping about and staring as though it was trying to figure out what Ribbons was. "Oh hello, and who might you be?" Ribbons inquired with a smile. "Birdy!" the robot repeated.

Then the teenager finally caught up to his associate, "Hey Birdy don't go flying off like that...whoa!" The young man suddenly stopped as he noticed the pale, naked man in front of him. "Oh greetings young man, is this thing yours?" The brown haired human nervously averted his gaze, "Oh heheh yea. Birdy is a really curious fellow." Ribbons almost chuckled at the squirming human in front of him who was clearly not comfortable with nudity. "Umm who are you? And what are you doing at the park at this hour...and err without clothes?" "Oh well I'm sorry about that," the innovade apologized, quickly making up a cover story in his mind, "I seemed to have had a bad night drinking and now I find myself in an unknown place without any possessions! The name is Ribbons by the way, Ribbons Almark." Ribbons held out his hand for a handshake, and the teenager shook it though with a bit of an uncomfortable tone in his voice.

"Oh that's an interesting name, my name is Kira. Kira Yamato. And my friend here is Birdy, a good friend of mine made him for me." "Birdy!" the robot exclaimed. Kira then spoke up, "Umm you said you don't know where you are? Well you're inside Heliopolis." Raising an eyebrow, Ribbons quickly asked, "Hmm Heliopolis? Can't say I know that place." Kira looked a little stunned, "Well it may not be as famous as the others, but surely you would know about an Orb Space Colony!" 'So we are indeed in space.' the innovade thought to himself, "I'm sorry Mr. Yamato but perhaps I'm suffering from some memory loss, maybe you could jog my memory with some information?"

Kira, being the Samaritan he was, didn't just agree to that but even invited Ribbons over to his residence for some clothes and shelter. Along the way he filled Ribbons on some basic information about the colony, orb, and anything that Ribbons brought up.

'So in summary apparently this alternate dimension still has the earth, albeit quite different.' Ribbons reminded himself as he and Kira made their way through the colony, after Kira gave Ribbons his sweatshirt to cover up the innovade's waist. 'This world uses the CE calender, the so called Cosmic Era, to mark when humanity created artificial homes outside of the earth's crust. Then came the development of genetically altered humans called coordinators, which was spearheaded by a man by the name of George Glenn. I think he and my old man would have some interesting conversations,' Ribbons chuckled at the thought but then thought over the more serious matters, 'it is currently January 5rd, CE71, and it has nearly been a year since the war known as The Bloody Valentine War has started. Caused by natural and coordinator mistrust, a nuked colony, and some anti nuclear devices, this war utterly dwarfs the petty squabbles that my world has endured between the super powers. Nearly the entire planet is fighting against the space colonies, with a few neutral exceptions such as an island based nation called Orb, of which owns the colony I am currently on. Also it appears that mobile suits are currently a coordinator only weapon, giving the space forces, or ZAFT as they are called, a huge edge on the battlefield. They only are stemmed by the sheer number of troops the earth forces, or Earth Alliance, can field. Though I get the feeling it won't be long until naturals get mobile suits, if my old world is anything to go by. I'm going to need more details though to decide my next move.'

Ribbons then looked over to the teenage coordinator, 'I must admit it is surprising that this college student is accommodating for me, a complete stranger. Still, better not turn down some help. This opportunity will allow me to solidify some type of information network to work with since I lack VEDA.'

It was only a short while until the strange pair made it to the Yamato residence, a modest middle class home within the suburbs. Kira apologized to his parents for his late night work along with the bizarre stranger that was with him, and then explained Ribbon's "predicament". The Yamatos looked at the innovade, now a proclaimed coordinator, with some distrust but seemingly bought the story. The father, Haruma, went to get some spare clothes while his wife Caridad showed their new guest to some living quarters. While this was going on, Kira promptly skipped whatever dinner was left and went to hit the sack, clearly exhausted from his day's work.

Ribbons now found himself dressed in a white button up shirt with some plain blue jeans. Not exactly his favorite attire, but it will do for now. However as he was examining himself in the mirror, the most peculiar thing occurred. Behind him he heard the shuffling of feet, and the safety of a handgun getting turned off.

"My my, is this how you treat all visitors Mr. Yamato?" the innovade snidely asked.

**Reviews/feedback would be appreciated. Feel free to tell me I'm terrible at this even! **


	2. A New Day

**Disclaimer, I do not own Gundam Seed or 00! They belong to their respective owners.**

**Wow I admit I didn't expect such positive reviews. I was bracing myself for scorn heh. Guess I should think more positively.**

**On to the next chapter then.**

Ribbons chuckled at his new predicament. Here he was, fresh into a new world and within only a few hours does he find himself at the mercy of another. Mr. Yamato look quite adamant at shooting him, 'Now the question is...why?' Ribbons thought.

"What do you want with Kira?" Ribbons' captor said.

Ribbons raised an eyebrow at that, "Excuse me?"

"Don't move! I said why are you with our son!" The man repeated. Then it all clicked in Ribbons' head. "Of course! You must be one of those overprotective types!" Ribbons exclaimed, "You must think I'm some sort of sexual predator. Especially given of my lack of clothes!" If this was an anime, one would expect a sweat drop to suddenly form on Mr. Yamato's head.

"Uhh...no not like that!" "Oh, so then drugs maybe? Or perhaps you think of me as a thief? Some sort of delinquent?" Mr. Yamato was starting to look a little annoyed at the incoming inquires. Then Mrs. Yamato leaned out of the hallway and whispered to her husband. "Perhaps he is what Kira says dear, I don't think he's here for Kira." Eyes darting from his wife to the innovade, Mr. Yamato conceded. "All right, listen Mr. Almark. If you do anything to endanger our son, you'll be kicked out alright?"

'Something bigger must be going on, but what?' "I understand completely Mr. Yamato. As I said I don't really remember much, it was by pure chance I came across your son. And it was your son who invited me over to your humble abode in the first place so I suppose he is the one to blame for my presence." Sighing, Mr. Yamato put away his gun. "Alright alright, I'm sorry for being...hostile to you. It's just that...Kira is a very good natured child and a little naive. He's been a bit bullied here and there back when he was young. We...just don't want anything bad to happen to him."

"Don't worry Mr. and Mrs. Yamato, I promise that I am not here to do anything harmful to your household or your son." The green haired innovade replied with his hand out, "Truce then?"

"Truce." Haruma said, though a bit stiffly. "Well...goodnight Mr. Almark."

"Goodnight, I'm sure we'll all be on much better terms in the morning. Or at least the morning equivalent on this colony anyways. I'll need to get used to that." Kira's parents left the guestroom, leaving Ribbons alone to his thoughts. 'I know I must look suspicious, but to pull on a gun on me? Hmm what are they hiding.' Deciding to resign for the night, Ribbons walk over to the bed and got some of the best sleep he has ever had.

* * *

In just a few hours, Heliopolis was now in its day mode and bright light filtered through the window of Ribbons' room, waking him up. 'Mmm I must say it feels great to be alive again. You really don't appreciate life until you lose it.' Then the smell of breakfast crept up to his nostrils. 'Now I may have had the world's cuisine best back then, but I do have to admit this home cooked meal smells absolutely delicious.'

Walking down to the kitchen, Ribbons was greeted with the site of Caridad Yamato cooking up a basic western style meal of eggs, bacon, pancakes, and some assorted fresh fruits. Kira was sitting at a dining table, with a plate of food and a glass of grapefruit juice, browsing or working on something on a laptop. The brunette coordinator then looked up, "Oh good morning Mr. Almark!"

"Yes, it does seem like a good morning, good morning to you too Kira and Mrs. Yamato."

"Thank you Mr. Almark. You're welcomed to eat anything you want. My husband isn't here though at the moment, he had to fill in an early morning shift. Also feel free to use any of our amenities. There's TV and internet, we have some spare computers from Kira's prep school years that should be pretty functional," Caridad mentioned as she flipped another flapjack.

"Why thank you Mrs. Yamato, you are far too kind for a stranger like me."

"Oh it's fine. I hope our little...problem last night didn't disturb you."

Kira then piped up, "Problem?"

Ribbons sat down with his own stack of pancakes with butter, though for a beverage he opted for a cold glass of water. "Oh it's nothing Kira. Just a small disagreements about bringing strangers in. But don't worry, we worked it out." "Oh thank goodness. I didn't want you to be all outside, alone and without clothes," The coordinator replied, while comically typing on the laptop as fast as his multitasking abilities could allow.

"That's our Kira, always wanting the best for everyone else," Caridad replied as she sat down to eat.

Ribbons was savoring the fluffy buttermilk pancakes when he noticed Kira being mostly focused on his own work. "So Kira you must be a student right, I'm a bit curious on what you're doing."

"I'm in Morgenroete College, working on...well all sorts of things. Mainly computer and machine programing."

"Hmm college at your age? Seems quite advanced." Ribbons noted with Caridad coughing slightly at that. "Ah well Kira has always been gifted. Even as a coordinator he's always been a straight A's honors student."

"Yea I understand things like concepts and theories and do tests pretty well, but that also makes me a prime target for the professors to dump work on me and claim 'ooh its for experience'! I'm a coordinator, not superman! I'm pretty much doing the workload of 3 professors at the moment!"

Ribbons laughed at that, "Yes, I think making flying humans is still a bit of a sci fi thing. Anyways maybe I could be of some assistance? I'm a bit knowledgeable on engineering."

"Oh really! That would be swell. Most of this stuff is really tedious robotics stuff."

"Hmm like mobile suits?" Ribbons inquired. "Ahh well no...I don't think I'd be working on war machines! It's civilian and manufacturing stuff." Kira replied, "Plus I'm a bit of a pacifist you know? That's why I love living in Orb. The war hasn't reached us and hopefully never will."

'Neutrality is simply a facade Kira,' Ribbons darkly thought, 'Either a neutral nation is doomed to fall from an attack, is stalling for time, or is in fact a front for another country. Now I wonder what Orb is of the three.'

"Ah well that is a lovely thought I suppose," Ribbons then said aloud, "Anyways you could put some work on some portable memory device and I'll take a look. It's the least I can do for being a freeloader."

* * *

With breakfast wrapping up, Ribbons took the liberty of using one of the spare computers to really start his adventure in this strange new world. Utilizing the wonders of the internet (or the CE's equivalent), Ribbons started absorbing information like a sponge. Any little bit of data he could get would have its use, although he made sure to not delve too deep into certain topics. He didn't know if there were any sort of spies or monitors, so he wanted to establish an information database without arousing too much suspicion since he was using a basic personal computer and not something military grade.

Basic history, various factions (he noticed despite it being a two faction war, that the Earth Alliance was made up of several sub factions. Somewhat similar circumstances as his old world), companies, politicians, technology, and so on. All were fair game to the innovade.

If he was going to save humanity from self destruction, he would have to find some powerful allies to aid him. For one, Ribbons definitely needed powerful mobile suits. A gundam would be preferable but this world lacked GN technology, so he suppose gundams would be out of the picture. Plus so far only one nation regularly used mobile suits and that was ZAFT, so he assumed he would have to find some sort of inside man there. 'Or I wait for someone else to make mobile suits...' he thought, resting his hand on his chin. Curiosity took hold of his mind as the green haired man looked through Kira's work. 'Hmmm definitely for non combative uses...or is it?' Using his own knowledge on mobile suit technology, Ribbons clearly saw certain patterns in Kira's work. 'Whoever you're doing this for Kira, it is most certainly for combat mobile suits. It's just currently disguised as much more mundane work. Why would that be though?'

Ribbons knew that unaltered humans, or naturals, had a hard time controlling mobile suits in this universe, some type of problems with OS. So to have extremely smart engineering students to slave over such programs might be a way around, but it still smelled fishy to the innovade. 'Why not use military researchers? And why is this happening in an Orb colony? Surely Orb wants to defend itself, but I'd expect this to occur on Orb itself and not some civilian colony in space. Not to mention Orb is a nation that accepts both coordinators and naturals, so I would think that they would concentrate on establishing a base of coordinator pilots and then branch out to naturals. Instead this work seems specifically for naturals.'

Running through his collected data, Ribbons has found some...interesting revelations thanks to the knowledge he gained from Kira's workload. Orb may have been neutral, but they obviously still do business with the other nations. On the surface, it's mainly trade and financial transactions, nothing too noteworthy even for a war. It's not like they're trading weapons or military supplies. 'But the first thing to do in a war is to make things appear as normal as possible,' Ribbons thought. He didn't know the exact picture but he could imagine some businessmen from Orb granting some covert operations to the Earth Alliance. ZAFT would likely not suspect an Orb colony to be a research front for natural friendly mobile suits unless they were overly paranoid. Given that Orb always keeps shouting its neutral stance in the face of the warring nations, it did seem unlikely that ZAFT would be suspicious. Then again Orb is still a nation based on Earth, and if there were...radicals that lumped the entire earth together, it could be possible.

'Though it's not like mobile suits would actually be built here, that'd be pretty stupid,' Ribbons sighed, rubbing his forehead, 'You'd have to somehow disguise all sorts of materials, then build them, and then somehow sneak them out given how much ZAFT would be watching the space lanes. Unless the EA is as good as Celestial Being, which I highly doubt, I can't see them consider this option lest they would want to get an Orb colony obliterated and create a political fuckup. In any case I'll keep this to myself. I wouldn't want to shatter Kira's hopes now would I.'

Ribbons decided to postpone his research and headed outside to explore, using some borrowed shoes and some sunglasses along with his attire from the previous night. 'Amazing that everything here appears so carefree and normal, when needless destruction of titanic proportions is occurring only a few thousand miles away,' He noted as he watched people go about their daily business in the city. Children were playing in a playground, construction workers were installing some new light fixtures, a cafe was bristling with activity to meet the morning demand of coffee and breakfast items.

Lost in thought, Ribbons didn't particularly see where he was going and bumped into someone. It wasn't a hard collision, but it definitely pushed him and the other person back a bit. "Oof!" a mature, feminine voice rang out.

As he collected himself, Ribbons started to apologize, "Oh sorry about that, guess I wasn't looking to where I was going...miss?" He looked at the person, more specifically the woman, in front of him. The women was of medium height and build, probably early to mid twenties. She had a youthful, but stern face with short black hair and violet eyes. "Oh well, no worries sir..." the mysterious woman said, though a bit of a stiff attitude. 'Given her body language, she doesn't seem to like me too much...'

"Ribbons Almark," he suddenly said.

"Uhh...Badiguel, Natarle Badiguel," Natarle replied, "If you could excuse me Mr. Almark, I really need to get somewhere."

"By all means," he replied, steeping to the side to let he through. Natarle muttered some sort of acknowledgment and went off. 'Hmm despite looking like any normal person, she seems to have a highly disciplined posture. A soldier or security woman perhaps? Plus despite never seeing me before nor having a particularly painful collision, she appeared to be on edge. Does she not like coordinators? Bit odd then to live in Orb.'

Seeing a free internet cafe, Ribbons decided to do some impromptu investigation. 'If she is a part of the police, it would certainly show up on the database.' He mused typing in Badiguel into the search engine (CE's equivalent to google). What he got however, seemingly confirmed his suspicions. 'The Badiguels are a prominent Earth military family. Natarle would most certainly be a part of the earth forces then and something tells me she isn't in Heliopolis for a vacation. This also explains the hostility to me, she probably doesn't have a high opinion of coordinators given many of them are her enemies. This coupled with my morning research creates a high probability that my mobile suit programing theory is correct. She could be here to monitor the progress. It is a shame I won't be able to monitor her activity however. I don't even exist in this universe so I have no form of ID, nor could I hack into camera systems without alerting cyber security.'

* * *

Ribbons left the cafe in defeat and went back to the Yamato residence, and as he walked in he found Kira working heavily on his computer. Birdy was flying around, being...well Birdy. "Oh hello Mr. Almark, had a nice walk?" The coordinator said looking up. "You know Kira, you don't need to call me mister. Makes me feel...old. Ribbons is just fine for me. And yes, I had a nice walk. Quite refreshing despite the artificial air. Pretty close to the real thing."

"Ah ok then mist- err Ribbons."

"Anyways, I think I got some ideas to help you with your work." The innovade said with a smile.

Ribbons and Kira were metaphorically shoveling though the masses of work the coordinator had, when Ribbons had a random thought come to him.

"Hey Kira, you said Birdy was made by a friend. Who was he? Birdy might not look like much but he is certainly a significant feat of robotics."

Kira blissfully looked as his green robotic pet, "Oh it was made by my best friend, Arthun Zala."

This certainly piqued Ribbons' interest. "Zala? Sounds familiar. Oh isn't that the name of a prominent family in the PLANTs and ZAFT?"

"Mmmhmm," Kira nodded. "We were pretty close when we were attending school on the moon. He was always protective of me and gave me Birdy as a farewell gift when his family moved."

"So...what is he doing now?"

Kira looked confused at Ribbons' question. "Umm...what do you mean?"

"If Athrun is indeed your best friend, you certainly should know what he'll be doing right? Plus his father, Patrick Zala, from what I gather is a pretty prominent politician. Surely Athrun must have been telling you what's been going on in his life."

Suddenly Kira looked quite depressed. "Oh...I uh...after he left to the PLANTs...we...we never really got in touch again. He really wanted me to go with him but may parents being naturals...decided that it would be better to live in Orb. I actually haven't spoke to him in...years." Suddenly Kira started to tear up. "Oh god...I never even called him once, not even when his mother died!" He choked out.

'His mother? Wait, I think I've read that one of the casualties from the nuking of Junius 7 was Patrick Zala's wife. Hmm that could certainly be problematic for such a prominent political family. That could easily sway Patrick to certain...tendencies and could influence what Athrun would do as a young man.'

"Well that certainly is pretty bad for a best friend. How about this, lets try contacting him now! I'm sure he'd love to hear you again. Shouldn't be too hard to at least get a hold of their residence." Ribbons, without even waiting for Kira's response, then started rummaging through public data on the PLANTs (like a phone directory). "Ah here we are! You have long distance right?" Ribbons joked, though Kira was still bewildered by his previous realization.

After dialing the Zala household number, he handed the phone over to Kira.

"Hello? This is Stanley, the Zala Household Secretary. How may I help you?"

"Oh umm sorry this is Kira, Kira Yamato? I was a childhood friend of Athrun Zala, I was wondering if you could get me in contact with him," Kira said, shaking a bit.

"Hmm we get that a lot, Athrun is certainly a popular boy with the girls...though you sound male so I'll give the benefit of the doubt...hmm hold on a minute...ah I'm sorry. Athrun isn't in right now, probably not for a long while."

Kira's eyes widened "O-oh really? Uhh...and why is that? School?"

"Hmmm no. He's on military duties right now. Although I can leave a message for you when he gets off."

Ribbons noticed Kira paling a bit from that. "Mi-mi-military? But Athrun hates war just as much as me! Why is he in the military?"

"Hmm I don't know his personal reason sir, I'm just a secretary. Maybe it has to do with the death of his mother, or the increasing threat of war. You'll have to ask him yourself I'm afraid." Stanley replied n a factual tone.

'I know Athrun's types. Young, impulsive, emotional teenagers. Doesn't take much to nudge him into the military despite Kira's knowledge on him.' Ribbons thought silently.

"Well...god I hope he doesn't do anything too dangerous...well ok then," Kira said, really shaking now, "Umm just tell him to contact me as soon as possible, here's some contact information..."

After Kira gave a way to communicate back, he hung up and slumped in his chair. "The military...Athrun why would you do such a dangerous thing!"

"I'm sure he'll explain it perfectly to you in time Kira, that is what friends are for right?" The innovade said, patting Kira on the shoulder.

Kira mumbled a bit, but then nodded. "Yea...I'm sure he has a good reason. Athrun always loved playing hero when we were kids. I'm sure he's doing it to make sure another Junius 7 is prevented." Kira then looked at Ribbons, finally smiling. "Ah, thank you Ribbons for suddenly bringing this up to me. It means a lot to finally get a hold, if only a small message, to my friend."

"It is no problem Kira Yamato," Ribbons replied, giving a genuine smile, "It's best to keep up with your friends. Never know what could happen. One day you're all together...the next...who knows."

Kira then excused himself as he needed to get some documents from one of his college buddies, leaving the innovade alone in solitude. 'I wonder why I did all of that,' Ribbons said in his head, 'I've...never really known anything about friendship. Oh sure all the things I said were some pretty generic friendship speech type stuff. But...what gave me any right to say any of that.' To Ribbons, friendship was something he never had, or desired. Yes there were the innovades but that was more of a family than friends, and in truth he didn't mind throwing them away as disposable pawns. He could and did sentence them to death without batting an eye, even killing one of them personally. Though to be fair, Regene shot first. The closet thing Ribbons had to a companion was Alejandro, but in the end he was just another stepping stone in Ribbons' conquest. 'And that's how the gundam meisters beat me,' he mused, looking out of the window, 'companionship and bravery, not ruthlessness and ambition.'

Taking a deep breath, Ribbons started to laugh. "Well then world, I hope you have prepared yourself for your savior. All I need is time and resources, and I will usher in a new age for humanity. Coordinators are interesting, but not the final step given their current limitations. Perhaps this world can also create Innovators...or perhaps some other...new type of human."

**A few notes**

**I don't know if EA people who be here by now (or the archangel and gundams), it is a few weeks before the actual start of Seed. But I'd imagine it wouldn't be too far off for a few personal to be there. Feel free to correct me! Plus I don't know if they would have used fake IDs or something, so I went with no on that.**

**The final part in the chapter is basically me commenting on something I've always wondered. If there was an actual reason for Kira and Athrun to have no idea what each other was doing, then let me know! I find it utterly bizarre they were pretty ignorant of each other for several years despite being BFFs.**

**Reviews/feedback would be appreciated!**


	3. Origins of a Meister

**Disclaimer, I do not own Gundam Seed or 00! They belong to their respective owners.**

**Yea I should probably mention my updates will be sporadic...I pretty much write whenever inspiration and time hit me. Sorry for those that like scheduled releases!**

_Log of emails_

_Jan 7 CE71_

_OMG Kira! It's been so long! It is really awesome to hear from you! Still keeping Birdy up and running? Sorry for not contacting you sooner, life has been...hectic ever since we've moved. Dad going straight to the council and mom...well doing her agriculture research. I'd be lying if I told you it doesn't still hurt to know I'll never see her again...but that is why I joined the ZAFT armed forces. I couldn't have just sit idly by you know! And as it turned out, I'm pretty good at it. I've gone through an accelerated officer program and now I'm currently a Redcoat, an elite soldier and mobile suit pilot. Though I haven't seen much combat, just patrols with an occasional skirmish. But things are really heating up so I could see myself going planetside soon..._

_Anyways don't worry though I've made some friends at my time here. There's Yzak Joule, a bit of a jerk head with a lust for battle. But he's loyal to a fault, and will always have your back in a fight (well as long as you're fighting for the same cause anyways!). His best bud Dearka Elsman is a typical joking and girl chasing teenager, he kind of keeps Yzak in line whenever Yzak gets angry (which happens a bit too often...). Rusty Mackenzie is another guy I'm with. Honestly I think if it wasn't for him, the rest of us wouldn't all be together. He always seems to know what to say in order to get everyone to calm down and really brings the best out of us. And then there's Nicole Amalfi. If you think I wasn't military material, then Nicole is even worse than me! He's the youngest, barely 15 year old. You know what he was doing before he joined the military? He was a pianist, and a really good one too! Plus he's the kindest, gentlest person you'll ever meet. But I guess like me, he couldn't just be on the sidelines with this damned war going on. I really hope nothing ever bad happens to him, hell I think I'd take a bullet to save him. Not that I'm planning on doing that anytime soon!_

_Also hilariously enough everyone's parents except Rusty's are on the council. Like father like son I guess. Though dad hasn't really been the same after mom died, he's not exactly the man you last remembered. He's always irritable and stressed out. I hope he doesn't do anything rash._

_So how are your parents doing? I kind of miss your mom's cookies, man they were the best. You making friends? I hope no one's picking on you for being a coordinator and all, I know the war kind of brings the worst out of people._

_Anyways I hope I can see you again, it's been so long Kira. But I don't really have much free time being in the military. Maybe the next time I get shore leave I'll try to see you!_

_Your childhood friend, Athrun Zala_

_PS: Also I'm...engaged. Not out of my decision, but my dad and the current PLANT leader want to strengthen ties between out families. You know the pop star Lacus Clyne? Yea shes my fiance. I'm not sure I'm cut out for a celebrity relationship, but she's a nice girl. I mean in personality and stuff! Don't get any weird ideas!_

* * *

_Jan 8 CE71_

_Athrun! It's so good to hear from you! Don't worry about your end Athrun, I know it must have been crazy. In my mind, it was my fault for not trying to get to you. All I've been doing all this time is just school. Not saying that education isn't important! I think I must have gotten distracted, that's all. Mom and dad are doing alright. They always worry for me, and I always worry for them! 1St gen coordinators are in a weird position in this stupid war. I guess that is why we moved to Orb and not the Plants for their high tolerance for anyone. Not badmouthing your nation or anything! It's my parent's decision after all, and they just want me to live a more peaceful life._

_Life has been good in my neck of the woods. I have made a lot of school friends that are accepting of my status. Heck I think sometimes they abuse me for my homework! My main circle of friends are Miriallia Haw, Tolle Koenig, Kuzzey Buskirk, and Sai Argyle. They're all great guys, and girl! Birdy is also doing just fine, you really built him to last you know. And I wouldn't mind to meet some of your friends, they sound like an interesting bunch._

_I must admit I actually probably would have never tried to contact you if it wasn't for this strange man I met a few days ago, he's a coordinator by the name of Ribbons Almark. You won't believe me, but I first met him while he was naked! Apparently he says that he must have gotten a super hangover or something, so he doesn't remember much. Sounds like a movie plot to be honest. He's staying over at my house at the moment, and he's really strange but at the same time pretty smart and observant. He was the one who mentioned that I should contact you, so you should thank him I guess._

_And wow you're engaged? That's kind of cool to be with a pop star, you must have felt the envy of her fans everywhere! Though knowing you, I bet you won't advance the relationship anywhere. You're too much of a gentleman you know?_

_I hope you stay safe!_

_Kira Yamato_

* * *

_The next few emails are just varying degrees of mundane conversations between friends_

* * *

_Jan 20 CE71_

_Hey Kira, listen I won't be able to talk to you for a while. My team has been assigned to a very important ZAFT commander and we'll be going to an important mission, can't talk about it obviously. We'll likely be gone for at least a week if not more._

_I'll try contact you as soon as I can!_

_Your childhood friend, Athrun Zala_

* * *

Jan 25 CE71

The past few weeks have been extremely productive to Ribbons. Being a master manipulator, it wasn't long before he constructed a completely fake persona for most official purposes. After impressing Mr. Yamato with some stock market knowledge (war be damned, there is still plenty money to be made!), Ribbons not only secured his own lodgings for the time being but also started to accumulate funds. This led to some acquisitions of various computers (some of which he graciously 'borrowed' from Kira's school place) in order to build a central computer command center and a few modified laptops and tablets. With these, the innovade had a much more robust hacking and data gathering device, though he was still a bit limited without military hardware.

He now had the ability to easily monitor most of the public CCTV and communications (or CE equivalent), but to his dismay the real areas of interest were still off limits such as the factory distinct and a few of the docks. Despite that setback, Ribbons has at least caught footage and pictures of materials going through the roadways that were clearly meant for military purposes. He just needed more time to crack those codes. Plus since his housemate Kira was a student and not an actual worker, there was no way he could physically try to access those areas.

On the subject of Kira, Ribbons has found the boy absolutely fascinating. That boy was kind hearted, naive, loyal to his friends and family, and was heavily against the war. Yet there was something special about the brunette coordinator, something that Ribbons sensed. The innovade didn't know what exactly was going on, but he deduced that there was more to Kira than meets the eye. Even amongst other coordinators, Kira was on a whole different level in terms of cognitive abilities and reflexes (Ribbons observed the boy hastily catching an entire tower of plates and cups without breaking a sweat at one point). Perhaps Kira himself didn't even know what he was capable of even. Even as Ribbons planned to eventually leave Heliopolis, he kept a mental note to keep an eye on Kira Yamato.

In other areas of the innovade's interest, one thing that Ribbons was looking into was that how he was going to get some type of extra muscle. Going directly EA was most likely out of the picture, they would never accept him for his looks or genes (while they might not match a coordinator's genes, he was sure doctors could easily tell he wasn't a natural).

Of course whatever was going on in Heliopolis could be extremely valuable, but he would have to resort to stealing or somehow copy down all of their schematics without getting caught. One man, even as perfect as he was, wouldn't be able to pull that off. He would have to hire other people if he really wanted whatever they were hiding, and that itself was problematic. Unlike his old world, this world lacked any significant amounts of PMCs. The only one prominent enough that Ribbons took a note of was a group known as the Serpents Tail, and unfortunately they only worked for the highest bidder. Currently, Ribbons lacked the financial capital to hire them for now.

His other options of ZAFT and Orb might not even be that viable either with his lack of "official existence" even with his fake papers. Sooner or later someone would dig into his file to find no actual trace of a Ribbons Almark, and that would at best raise suspicion and at worst bar him from any important position within the armed forces. Then again, Ribbons preferred to work in the shadows. Being in a high position would just paint a target on himself and thus be an unnecessary risk. He would just have to play the puppet master, manipulating and influencing people to work for him and him alone. After all judging from this war, one could barely trust humans from tying their own shoes together let alone achieve peace and understanding.

Although the innovade had many things to think and plan about, for now he was just relaxing. He worked tirelessly through the weeks like his housemate and decided that some r and r would do his body wonders. He was still getting used to the fact he couldn't just upload himself to a new vessel whenever one got worn out. Maybe he'll create that type of system eventually, but for now he was just as mortal as anyone else. Eyes closed, feeling the soft green grass, breathing in the clean albeit artificial air, Ribbons was in the perfect meditative state.

Well he would be in the perfect meditative state if a certain brown haired coordinator wasn't freaking out right next to him along with his mechanical bird. "Work work work work work!" Kira exclaimed, "This is akin to child labor!" Ribbons chuckled while stroking Birdy, "You're old enough to get a job Kira, so having to do advanced computer engineering is definitely not illegal." "Gee thanks Ribbons, no wonder you like Professor Kato so much," Kira replied grumbling. A few days ago, Kira had introduced the innovade to his friends and teachers. Immediately Ribbons started several intellectual conversations with Kira's teachers, offering several theories from his own world such as space elevator power plants and (although very ambiguous information) GN Drives. Thus he was quite popular amongst the faculty, much to the dismay of Kira who more or less had to do even more work.

"Hey Kira!" a new voice piped up. The duo turned their heads to see 2 of Kira's friends, Miriallia Haw and Tolle Koenig walking up to them. Kira groaned a bit, "Please don't tell me what I think you're gonna tell me..." Tolle laughed at his friend's attitude. "The professor is looking for you!"

As Kira wallowed in despair, Miriallia, or Miri for short, looked at Kira's laptop which was showing some streaming of the global news. "Oh my, Kaohsiung has been assaulted by Zaft forces. That isn't all that far from Orb..." "Don't forget that Orb is neutral though," Tolle said, crossing his arms, "No way Zaft would ever touch us." Kira could only nod, especially knowing his best friend was probably out there on the frontlines. In Kira's mind, there would be no way Athrun would ever attack a nation that stood for peace. Ribbons got up from his resting posture and brushed the grass from his pants, "Well I suppose we've postponed the inevitable Kira. Come, let us see what your 'evil' professors have for you now!" He said, eliciting another groan from the brunette.

* * *

In space, outside of Heliopolis

Athrun Zala felt sick, really sick. He felt as if he was going to vomit whatever was in his stomach, then kneel over and die. Of course the young blue haired coordinator wasn't physically sick, such a feat would be rare amongst space age medicine and genetic engineering. He just felt extremely uncomfortable with the upcoming operation he and his fellow Zaft soldiers were going to undertake, attacking a secret earth alliance mobile suit production facility to steal their prototypes and destroy anything else that was military hardware. The problem was said facility was in Heliopolis, the home of his friend.

Just then, two other Zaft red coats walked up to Athrun with looks of concern. The orange haired one, named Rusty, spoke up. "Hey Athrun we're getting really close to operation time. Better get ready." The other, who had green haired, "Rusty is right. The commander is expecting us soon. Is something the matter?"

Athrun sighed and looked at his friends. "Rusty, Nicol...you know that we're going to assault not only a neutral colony, but also the home of my friend right."

Rusty rubbed the back of his head, "Yea...you mentioned Kira to us a while back. Look I don't like it either. I've got nothing against the majority of Orb. I highly doubt most of the civies in there even know about the EA deal. But come on we talked about this. We're just aiming for the factory districts, that's all! Unless your friend somehow got recruited for security, he should be far away from there."

Nicol nodded in agreement and put forth his own thoughts, "Plus we're only going in to steal the mobile suits, and we're trying to keep collateral to a minimum. It's not like we're ordered to destroy the colony! That would be an act of war!"

Athrun took a deep breath. "Yea...yea you guys are right. I hope Kira stays safe during this..." He soon joined his comrades to the locker rooms to suit up. 'I I hope you can forgive me Kira.'

Their other red coats teammates Dearka and Yzak were already suited up in their pilot suits with the exception of their helmets. Yzak scowled as they entered. "What the hell took you guys? Commander Le Creuset needs us now!" the silver haired teenager snapped. "Ah calm down Yzak! We were just taking our time with something alright? We're getting ready." Rusty said in defense grabbing his red suit. "Hmph you better, the more we wait, the more chance those damn naturals might catch wind of what we're doing," Yzak growled as he stomped off, while Dearka shrugged and followed suit.

Soon all the redcoats were in their gear and were waiting at the airlocks of their warship along with several lower skilled greencoats. A few GINNs were already hovering outside for the operation. All through the soldiers' radio, their enigmatic masked commander voice came on. "Remember, you all have been picked specifically for this task. The war as we know it could change with this operation and we cannot let the EA gain any advantage over us. Secure the mobile suits and kill anyone who resists. That is all, good luck."

"And that's our cue." Dearka said with bravado as the infantry jet packed their way to the unsuspecting colony.

* * *

Within Heliopolis, Ribbons, Kira, and Co were now getting to the Professor's room. They met up with Kira's other friends Sai and Kuzzey along the way, with the teenagers discussing all sorts of everyday mundane topics. Ribbons couldn't really relate to them, he never really experience any of this teenage culture stuff. Then again, Ribbons even wondered if he could even age. Innovade bodies changed very little over time as long as something horrible never happens to it. Once again Ribbons was reminded of just how alien he was to humans. His inner philosophical thoughts were interrupted when he noticed another person in the back of the class room, wearing a very obscuring hat. 'Hmm I don't recognize him…or her.' "Who do you think that is?" he mused aloud. "Oh that guy? Dunno, I think he's also here to see the professor," Kuzzey replied, not noticing how the mystery person flinched a bit from being put on the spotlight.

Just then Ribbon's PDA rang. "Oh hmm excuse me," he said pulling off to the side to check on his camera feeds. What he saw was not pleasing. "Oh hell," the innovade muttered, as he clearly saw Zaft forces swarming the various airlocks of the colony. Then he noticed the explosive charges they were setting up. "EVERYONE GET DOWN!" he yelled, startling everyone, including the anonymous stranger. Not a second after, the colony's structure blew up, sending powerful shockwaves throughout the buildings. Dust and debris started to fill the outer edges of Heliopolis with zaft infantry pouring in armed with rifles, smgs, and jetpacks. Factory security, hidden EA soldiers, and the colony militia retaliated, but it was obvious who had the edge.

"W-w-what is this?" Miriallia said, trying to keep her balance. "An asteroid?" another questioned?

"Sorry to shatter your dreams kids, but this is a genuine zaft attack," Ribbons answered darkly. "But we're neutral!" Sai yelled.

As the teens were still getting grips with reality, parts of the building started coming down. "First let's get out of here guys!" Kira commanded, not wanting any of his friends become one with the rubble. The students, the stranger, and the innovade quickly made their ways through the halls, only for a huge chunk of debris to fall from the ceiling and effectively cutting off Ribbons, Kira, and the stranger from the rest of the group. "Kira you alright!" a muffled voice came out. Seeing that no one was harmed on their side, Kira replied "Yea! We're fine here. Just get to the shelters! We'll find another way through!"

At that moment though, the hat wearing person bolted for one of the exits which startled the other two. "Hey where are you going? It's dangerous out there!" Kira said, catching up to the other person. His coordinator strength and stamina easily allowed Kira to catch up, though he more or less tackled the person to the ground. "Excellent work Kira," Ribbons half heartily joked, scanning the area for soldiers, "in any other situation your predicament could be easily taken the wrong way." Kira didn't really understand what his green haired companion was talking about until he noticed the person he tackled had his…or her hat off revealing a very angry girl.

"What the hell is your problem!" the girl snapped back, pushing the flabbergasted coordinator off of her. "You're a girl!" "No shit Sherlock! Now let me go!" replied the distressed girl. 'My my, what a hellion,' Ribbons inwardly said, examining the blond tomboy in front of him. Kira loosened his grip, causing the girl to run to the factory warehouses. "Hey wait for us!" Kira said. 'Hmm I don't remember any emergency shelters over in that direction, could she also have knowledge of the mobile suits?' Ribbons thought, 'Well now is a better chance than any to finally see what has been going on thanks to this chaos.'

The trio made their way to the factory district, somehow evading the fighting, and what Ribbons saw made his blood turn cold. "I knew it, father you have betrayed us all!" the girl exclaimed.

In front of them were the mobile suits the EA have been working on, but to Ribbons they weren't just any type of mobile suits. Despite their lack of GN drives, the warmachines in front of him were undeniably very familiar to the innovade. The human like face, the V fin, the majestic and powerful look they had, though they could really use a paintjob. "Gun…dams…" uttered Ribbons in disbelief. At that moment nothing else mattered for Ribbons. He knew what he had to do, he needed those gundams.

"What are a bunch of kids doing here? Get to the shelters!" a brown haired, uniformed woman said to them. Ribbons noted that she was armed, probably a defender of the mobile suits.

"Ahh oh sorry!" replied Kira as he grabbed the blond girl and started to run to the shelters. "What the hell! Let me go!" "No it's not safe here, you heard that lady!"

Ribbons went along with the two but he quickly stopped as soon as they lost sight of the woman. "Kira you go on ahead, I need to do something." "What! Come on Ribbons we really need to go!" "Don't worry about me. Just get your 'friend' to shelter. I can handle myself" "Hey what's the big ideaaah!" The girl was cut off as Kira dragged her along. "Alright I trust you Ribbons! We'll meet up as all of this is over!"

'I wonder if we'll even see each other again period,' Ribbons thought as he turned back to the direction of the gundams. Ribbons snaked his way through the district, being careful not to alert any side of the battle. It was all going well until he bumped into a red clad soldier on the catwalks. "What the fu-" the soldier exclaimed. Before he could even react, Ribbons delivered a swift elbow to his gut, causing him to drop his gun. Using his inhuman reflexes, Ribbons caught the gun and shot the zaft personnel in the knee. Non-lethal, but perfect for incapacitating a threat. The soldier fell on his legs as he clutched his wound, groaning in pain and thus was unable to defend himself as Ribbons knocked him out cold. 'Hmm you'll be useful for information.' Ribbons thought as he quickly tossed the poor soldier into the cockpit of the closet gundam and promptly followed suit.

Settling into the cockpit, Ribbons powered on the system and the machine's computers lit up like a Christmas tree. Soon the words General Unilateral Neurolink Dispersive Automatic Maneuver showed up on the monitor. "Haha, they are even called gundams here! What kind of cruel fate is this," Ribbons said aloud, "Though the acronym makes little sense meaning wise. It is as if they wanted to call these mobile suits gundams without actually saying gundam. As for the gundam's name..." Ribbons found a panel that had the identification information. "The GAT X303 Aegis. Aegis meaning the protector. How fitting for one such as myself."

Unfortunately for a veteran pilot like Ribbons, the machine he was in wasn't exactly up to par as he tried to maneuver. "This thing moves like a half broken Tieren Ground Type! The OS on this thing is utter garbage. Completely unsuitable for a gundam!" Ribbons noticed the gundam next to him also started up, and it too stumbled around very ungracefully.

He decided to see if the machine next to him had any sort of luck with the appalling program and opened a communication channel, crossing his fingers that it wasn't piloted by zaft. A screen popped up and he saw the same woman that tried to chase them out earlier, however behind her was none other than Kira. "Kira? What the hell are you doing in that gundam?" Ribbons said in shock. "Who are you and what are YOU doing that G weapon?" the female replied, who Ribbons noticed had an injured shoulder.

Interrupting their little confrontation, a GINN landed and prepared to attack them. "For now I'm not with zaft if that's what you're wondering. I'd say we should first eliminate our common enemy."

"Quick, activate your phase shift armor!" the woman said, pressing a button. Soon her gundam turned from a drab grey to a bright array of white, blue, and red. Finding a button with the phase shift words, Ribbons also used it which made his gundam turn primarily red and crimson. Shortly after, the GINN started its assault, trying to shoot their suits with its gun but quite obviously failing. 'Impression, this armor makes a mockery of weapons it seems,' Ribbons observed. However something distressing caught his attention. "What? Power levels are falling rapidly! At this rate neither of us will be able to keep our gundams powered with the next few minutes!" Ribbons had to act fast as the GINN switched tactics and started to pummel the other gundam with its sword. The scene was like a kid kicking over a half dead animal as the gundam was utterly useless at defending itself. Enough was enough! "Kira how fast are you at reprogramming?" Ribbons sternly said, "We're sitting ducks out here with these garbage computers."

Kira thought a bit and then tapped the woman on her good shoulder. "Umm miss please let me into the seat, I'll be able to fix this machine." "What? I can't let a civie like you use this!" "I'm sorry to intrude on your orders ma'am but Kira here is the best I know on programing. He's our only option of surviving this!" Ribbons defended.

Sighing, the woman switched positions with Kira and allowed him do his magic. Kira immediately started popping up all sorts of files and prompts, typing as fast his coordinator fingers could go. An impressive feat for being in a cramped and unfamiliar vehicle with an enemy literally on top of him.

"And done!" Kira shouted, gripping the controls. His gundam soon shoved the GINN backwards and stood up in all of its glory. 'Now that is a gundam worthy of a meister!' Ribbons thought.

Kira then looked mortified. "You have to be kidding me? This thing is only equipped with knives!"

'Well looks like it could use some work then for it to be meister worthy,' Ribbons sweatdropped.

Still despite it being armed with only the most basic of weapons, Kira soundly defeated the GINN with some quick dodges and several decisive strikes. Unfortunately for Ribbons who wanted to have some spare GINN parts for studying, the pilot ejected and used the GINN's self destruct function. All that was left was small bits of scrap and a crater. 'Note to self, find some way to disable one of the mobile suits without it exploding.'

Seeing that there weren't any other hostiles in the area, Ribbons and Kira set their machines down to exit them. Kira's 'companion' however was unconscious to which some of Kira's friends helped to attend to her. Apparently the teens didn't get to shelter in time, and were utterly surprised when they saw Kira and Ribbons leave the mobile suits.

'This is going to be an interesting change of events.' Ribbons mused, lugging his prisoner as he zip lined to the ground.

* * *

**I feel that I may have pacing problems...as always r and r! Oh also I'm looking for a beta. Now if you excuse me I need to go beg bandai to give me my HG Gundam Leopard Destroy and G Falcon kits.**


	4. Aggressive Negotiations

**Hey I decided to update! I sure am lazy, though I suppose I did just finish a 6 week study abroad. Slogging through boring parts, but I would feel weird for skipping stuff.**

**I do not own gundam, they belong to their respective owners. **

* * *

Athrun was having a very bad day. Correction, he was having one of the worst days of his life only superseded by the death of his mother and the separation away from his best friend. What has happened to the blue haired young man to incur such a terrible feeling?

First, his team attacked a neutral orb colony that his best friend lived on. Granted, it housed a secret EA facility, but they still had to attack the colony itself.

The attack was originally going well more or less, though they did lose a lot of lower end grunts. It was the red coat soldiers that were to be the keys in obtaining the 5 EA mobile suit prototypes, and the mission would have been a success as long as they completed their objective. That is where the second problem for Athrun occurs. His close teammate, Rusty, suddenly went silent. He didn't know if he got shot, or got captured, or even got flattened by rubble. Whatever the case was, Rusty was not here.

And finally, Athrun faced his greatest fear. He saw Kira. It wasn't even just a sighting, he and Kira were in spitting distance of each other! Seeing the completely aghast look on Kira's face that only seemed to beg "why" utterly devastated Athrun, like a proverbial band aid that was ripped off a still recovering wound.

Completely demoralized, Athrun didn't even notice until it was too late that Kira more or less fell into one of the prototypes, while the other one appeared to also get manned by the EA.

Without support, Athrun had no choice but to retreat...

And his day only kept going downhill from there, as he was now getting slammed into a locker by one of his more aggressive teammates.

"What the FUCK do you mean you failed!" Yzak spat out, with the other red coats trying to restrain him. "Stop it Yzak! What could he have done!" Nicole begged, fearing the violence could escalate. Yzak only glared at the others, before storming out with Dearka following. Athrun slid down into a sitting position without saying a word, still lost in his self loathing. Nicole, not wanting to his his friend in such a dire state, tried to comfort him. "Come on Athrun...so you failed in your part of the mission. Bad stuff happens sometimes At least you're alive..."

Athrun could only weakly look at Nicole. "Yea sure...and what am I suppose to say to our commander? Rusty's family? My...father?" Nicole didn't really know what to say to those statements, especially the last one. It was no surpirse that a lot of pressure was put on Athrun for his status of beign Patrick Zala's son. Then to interrupt them, a really pissed off green coat named Miguel walked in. "Miguel? What happened to you?" Nicole said, trying to change the topic. He remembered that Miguel was suppose to be outside with his GINN.

"Damn EA prototypes, that's what," the 'Magic Bullet' replied. "Somehow one of them got really good mid way and took out my GINN. No frickin clue how damn naturals managed that."

'Kira? Did you do that?' Was all Athrun could think.

* * *

"I mean I know our colony is kind of half destroyed and stuff, but this is so cool looking!" Sai said, walking up to the strike gundam.

"Well do mind your step kids. These are finely tuned warmachines, not your grandad's vintage car." Ribbons said, securing his prisoner by binding his hands. The innovade removed the soldier's helmet, revealing a mop of orange hair and a youthful face probably no older than 16 years. 'Soldiers keep getting younger don't they?' he thought, 'the youth must pay with their blood for the sins of their fathers.' Ribbons look over to the side, noticing that some of Kira's school friends were tending to the EA officer who must have passed out from her wound. 'I get the feeling she won't be too happy when she wakes up,' he thought, 'hopefully she won't take her frustration out on this zaft soldier.'

As Ribbons was musing, the aforementioned solider started to wake up.

"Ohh...my knee is really sore," he mumbled as he woke up. "Wha? Athrun? What happened?" the soldier then woke up fully and looked around, noticing his bound hands. "What the? Oh shit!" He struggled a bit, but found he was properly captured. "Damn, figures I'd be the one to fuck up...Yzak is so gonna kill me."

"Ah good, you're awake now," Ribbons said, giving his full attention to the red clad person. "Who the hell are you? You don't look like EA!" the soldier replied, examining his captor. "Hmm correct on that. Though it wouldn't be too far fetched that an orb colony would have coordinators, no?" "Yea, but you're not really suppose to know about the EA...how did you get into the facilities? That's military secrets!"

Ribbons rubbed his forehead. "The college isn't that far you know. One wrong turn and you'll end up here instead of the evac shuttles."

The soldier looked down in understanding. "O-oh...I guess that makes sense. Damn I really didn't want civvies to get involved." 'Hmm well at least he cares about collateral,' thought Ribbons.

As this was going on, Kira walked over from the Aegis Gundam. "Hey Ribbons, I've managed to fix your mobile suit's OS so at least you'll be on par with mine...not sure why you'd want me to do that though..."

"Just a precaution Kira. As of right now, only the two of us could fend off an attack."

Kira didn't seem to happy about those prospects. "I really don't want to kill anyone you know..."

"Heh well there are alternatives to killing," Ribbons started, but then Kira noticed the prisoner.

"Huh? A Zaft soldier? Hey!" He suddenly ran up to the prisoner, "Do...do you know Athrun? Athrun Zala." The young man's eyes widen at that. "Hey how do you know Athrun? Wait." The soldier thought a bit, then connected the dots given the evidence. "Oh shit...you're him..." The man looked more and more distressed. "Shit shit shit shit shit. I told him we'd make sure we didn't harm you..."

"What are you talking about?" Kira questioned.

"Yea, I know Athrun alright. I'm one of his teammates and friends from his academy days. Rusty, Rusty Mackenzie. And you must be his childhood friend Kira Yamato."

"Oh...then why...why did he and all of you attack us! A peaceful colony!" "Listen I have nothing against orb alright! Heck you should have seen Athrun, he looked really bad for doing this. We're just following orders alright, we were suppose to just take out the factory area where the prototypes were being held. We had no idea civvies would end up there." Rusty said apologetically.

Kira looked down as Rusty continued, "Honestly if anything you'd should be angry at Orb or whoever the hell decided to build these damn machines-" "Gundams." Ribbons interjected, eliciting a strange look from Rusty. "Ahh ok...these gundams...inside here! Heck since when did the EA and Orb have an official partnership?"

Kira couldn't really answer back as politics wasn't really something he was good at understanding. "Well for now you're our prisoner, so I suggest you get comfortable until we decide what to do you with you," Ribbons said. "Hnn, yea I'm in a bit of a pickle aren't I?" the orange haired coordinator replied. "Don't worry though, I'm not interested in torture or executions so I can at least promise you that," Ribbons answered, "The name is Ribbons Almark by the way."

As this was going on, the female EA personnel was gaining consciousness. Miri waved to her friends. "Hey Kira! The woman is waking up!" She looked back, "Be careful miss, your wound is still recovering." "Wha-?" the woman looked at her own shoulder, noticing how it was treated. "Oh, thank you." "No problem! Kira was quite worried when you passed out." The woman looked past the girl to see everyone else, a few of them being really close to the mobile suits. She shot up, almost scaring Miri a bit. "Hey you kids get away from the G Weapons!" she shouted, reaching for her gun. Or she would have reached for her gun if it was there.

Ribbons walked over with a smug look. "Oh? Looking for this miss?" he said twirling the woman's sidearm, empty of its mag. The woman gritted her teeth. "Whats the big idea taking a soldier's firearm?" Ribbons tossed the empty gun to her feet, "Oh well I didn't think you needed it since you were unconscious. Besides it's not like you still need it hmm? Nothing but some concerned citizens here and a zaft soldier that can't do anything," he said motioning towards Rusty. "But these people have been exposed to military secrets!" "Not my fault this 'secret place' is so close to the civilian population. Don't you people have Area 51 or something for this kind of stuff?" Ribbons accused.

"Ribbons that's enough! I think the woman does have a point!" Kira said, joining the group, "Sorry miss...this is a really stressful situation for all of us..." The woman sighed. "You're right...I guess it's not too far fetched for non military people to get mixed up in all of this. I'm lieutenant Murrue Ramius of the Earth Alliance." The rest of them gave their names, except for Rutsy who hasn't said a word ever since Murrue woke up. "And the red suited boy is Rusty," Ribbons finished, "I hope EA policy isn't to shoot unarmed prisoners is it?" Rutsy could only gulp at that thought. Back in the academy, he had heard quite a few rumors surrounding PoWs. Murrue frowned. "Well...I admit it would be wrong to put a bullet through his head, but that doesn't stop the fact that this is an enemy soldier who was partaking in a raid against my military and killed some of my close co workers."

"Well I may not know EA military protocols too well, but perhaps we should just keep him captive until we reach a more permanent base?" suggested Ribbons. Murrue thought for a few seconds. "I guess that makes more sense." Rutsy exhaled in relief, knowing that he wasn't going to die at the moment.

"Anyways," Murrue continued, "since I guess you people are more or less our defense force we'll need some extra equipment for the G Weapons." "Gundams," Ribbons once again said, getting annoyed at these people's instance on not calling gundams by their proper name.

"Gun...dam?" Murrue asked. "The mobile suits have an OS that is an acronym that spells GUNDAM. Hence why I think we should call them that. Plus I personally think it sounds way better than G Weapon." 'Well that and I have such a rich history with these things...but they don't need to know that.'

"Well ok then Mr Almark. As I said we'll need additional equipment for the gundams. The Aegis is more or less complete, but the strike will need its Striker packs."

The innovade was extremely interested in these implications. "Striker packs?"

Murrue sighed as she was debating on how much she should tell about the mobile suits to these strangers, especially the green haired adult who was very inquisitve. "The Strike as you can tell has...very little in terms of weapons. That is because it is designed to be a modular mobile suits that can take on different roles depending on what kind of equipment it is armed with. If we're lucky, the containers for the packs are still intact."

Since Murrue was still injured and Kira and Ribbons had to be on standby, Kira's school friends were recruited to the task of retrieving any equipment containers they could find. While they did that, Kira went over to the Strike to use it as an oversized radio to see if they could hail any other friendlies in the area.

That just left Ribbons, Murrue, and Rusty, the first two looked like they were having a staring contest.

Ribbons decided to break the ice first. "So Ms Ramius...if I'm honest you don't seem to be the military type."

"How so?" The brunette asked, still on edge with the green haired stranger's presence.

"Well despite all the clear breaches in military protocol that you yourself mentioned, you not only so far are not detaining us, but in some way are relying on us to help you."

"I...well...we're all of of stuck on the same boat currently. Besides...it's not like I could actually have shot any of you. I suppose you are innocent civilians of another nation. That would end up in a scandal or something."

Ribbons inwardly laughed at the thought of him being an innocent non combatant. "Perhaps, but I'm pretty sure any military has a shoot or detain on sight policy for trespassing and stealing."

Murrue's eyes widened. "Wait you can't take the mobile suits!"

"Why not? You don't seem to be in any condition to stop us now. What is stopping from me and my naive associate over there from simply walking away?"

"But...but...you'll need a ship."

"Oh, I suppose that is true. Not to mention zaft is pretty ticked about us so I doubt they would accept us with open arms, and they are currently waiting outside I bet with a lot of firepower. Yet my earlier statement is still unchallenged Ms Ramius. You don't look like the military type, or at the very least something tells me being in the military isn't your first career choice."

"Why are you asking me this?"

"Curiosity Ms Ramius. Just simple curiosity. I get the feeling we may have to tolerate each others presence for a while. Mind as well get to know each other."

"Fine...it's true that I'm not a career soldier. I was originally a teacher."

Rusty on the side muttered something about 'lucky students'.

"Ahh so that explains your sympathy for the students here."

"I...suppose. But with the mounting death toll and the fact that the war was seemingly unending I decided to join to at least make the tiniest difference. So that is my story, what about yours?"

"I'm an amnesiac."

Murrue did a double take. "What?"

"It's true. I woke up in the middle of Heliopolis one day with no memory, not even with any clothes on myself. I was graciously admitted into the Yamato household by Kira over there. You can ask him to confirm my story."

"That sounds a bit too convenient," Murrue said, eying up the innovade. "So how do I know you aren't some type of zaft infiltrator?"

"Well you don't, but the fact that I haven't gunned you down, captured a zaft soldier, and haven't handed them the gundam enough proof so far?"

Murrue really couldn't argue with that. There were too many counterproductive actions Ribbons has done so far to be associated with zaft.

Their conversation was interrupted when a trailer crewed by the other students came along towing a container. Murrue went over to inspect the contents whereas Ribbons decided to check up on the budding pilot. "Judging from your look of frustration, I'm guessing no luck so far Kira?"

"Sorry Ribbons. Nothing but static so far."

"Well keep trying. I'm sure some-" But before Ribbons could finish his train of thought, a part of the colony blew up and two aerial combatants could been seen. One was obviously a white colored mono eyed mobile suit while the other was more of an orange jet, a vehicle known as a mobile armor.

"Well that is just perfect," Ribbons snarled, running to the Aegis, "Kira you better equip one of those packs Ms Ramius mentioned!"

Murrue seeing the chaos in the air ordered the rest of the kids to get to safety and then turned to the Strike. "Kira! Load up the Launcher Pack!"

As Ribbons powered up his gundam, one of the containers opened up which allowed the Strike to attach a backpack that was equipped with various heavy weapons.

'Hmm not bad,' Ribbons observed when looking at the Strike Launcher, 'it's no Virtue but that Angi cannon looks sufficient enough for long range support. The power should be good enough to annihilate any mobile suit...but then again.' Ribbons monitored the white mobile suit and saw it was quite the acrobat, dodging and weaving the mobile armor like a dancer. 'Whoever that mobile suit pilot is, he is good.' Ribbons didn't like taking chances.

"Kira hold your fire for now," Ribbons commanded. "What? But I think I can hit him!"

"Perhaps but look at the power readings on your main cannon. If you miss you'll likely blow a hole in the colony so unless you suddenly have become a master marksmen you should be on standby while I'll engage."

"You sure Ribbons? That guy up there looks like he means business! Can you even use a mobile suit well?"

Ribbons inwardly laughed at the comment. 'Oh Kira you have no idea,' "Well then hehe, let's find out."

Ribbons gripped the Aegis' controls and flipped through the options. 'Hmm a transformable like the Arios and Kyrios gundam. Guess I'll use that.' Upon selecting that option, the Aegis boosted off the ground a little bit, and then folded up into a jet like form. Pushing the throttle, Ribbons blasted off towards the white mobile suit. The enemy immediately noticed the newcomer and proceeded to open fire on the Aegis. Ribbons bobbed and weaved through the attack and transformed back into the mobile suit form when he was close enough to strike. The Aegis activated one of its arm beam sabers and attempted to slice the white mobile suit, which is identified as a CGUE, only to be met by a heavy sword.

As the two suits locked their weapons against each other, a peculiar feeling passed through Ribbons. It was like a tickling sensation through his brain. 'Quantum brainwaves?'

His opponent also appeared to feel something and a voice crackled through. "Well this is a strange surprise, who are you?"

'I really wonder why I keep the public channel on, well good for taunts and philosophical talks I suppose,' Ribbons thought, "I'm just a concerned citizen of this colony, you?"

Ribbons could hear some chuckling. "I'm just a man on a mission, and you my dear friend are being a nuisance."

The CGUE did some rapid slashes, but Ribbons intercepted each one of them.

"Impressive," his opponent said, "Lets see if you can handle this!"

The CGUE pushed off from close combat and started to shoot, prompting Ribbons to go on the evasive. Ribbons has decided the other man was indeed quite a skilled pilot, perhaps an ace?

Another voice came on Ribbons' intercom, though this one suitably more friendly "Hey I don't know who you are but I guess I'm on your side. Heads up!" The orange mobile armor from before swooped in and barraged the CGUE, though without doing any meaningful damage.

"Tch annoying insect!" The white mobile suit's pilot yelled, trying to fight on two fronts.

"Ribbons do I have a shot?!" Kira interjected, though a bit shakily. His Strike was on the ground with its Agni cannon pointed to the air.

"Kira there's me, this friendly mobile armor, and a hostile mobile suit all flying around like crazed eagles. Unless you're a super solider, I suggest no for now!"

"But I just want to help!" the brunette begged.

"Moral Support is sometimes the best support for now Kira Yamato."

Before they could argue anymore, a suddenly explosion erupted from the side of the colony and a giant white warship that was clearly armed to the teeth rose from the smoke like a goddess from the heavens.

"Hmm the ship survived. This changes things." Ribbons heard from his opponent. 'People really need to turn off public chat.'

"Now's my chance!" Kira said, powering up the agni cannon. "Wait you fool!" the innovade attempted to say, but the warning was too late as the Strike's cannon fired off a sizable red beam of destruction. The CGUE, despite all of the distractions thus far, juked at the last second, causing the beam to continue uninterrupted towards the colony wall. Like a hot knife through butter, the beam impacted against the wall and proceeded to create a large hole. Seeing a convenient escape opportunity, the CGUE fled and flew through the newly created pathway.

"So...so much power..." Kira could only say, looking a bit horrified that he just damaged his home colony. Ribbons could only pinch his nose in disappointment at the lack of trigger discipline Kira had shown, but the boy wasn't a soldier he rationalized so it should have been obvious what Kira would try to do. Hindsight is 20/20 after all. Running his hand through his hair in frustration, Ribbons lowered to the ground next to the Strike, and was soon joined by the orange mobile armor which survived the aerial firefight.

"How can this day get any better?" the innovade bitterly mused, seeing more alliance soldiers.


End file.
